After the war, Puglia was involved in the occupation of the Dalmatian coast, and in 1920 her captain was murdered in a violent confrontation in Split with Croatian nationalists.

By this time, her design was over ten years old and the ship was rapidly becoming obsolescent;[3] in comparison, Germany had already commissioned the world's first light cruisers, the Gazelle class, which were significantly faster and better armed.

In July 1901, she was in Australia during the visit of the British Prince George, Duke of Cornwall, son of then-King Edward VII.

Puglia and the cruiser Calabria, which had recently arrived from Asian waters, bombarded the Turkish port of Aqaba on 19 November to disperse a contingent of Ottoman soldiers there.

Hostilities were temporarily ceased while the British King George V passed through the Red Sea following his coronation ceremony in India—the ceasefire lasted until 26 November.

[10] After resuming operations in the northern Red Sea, Puglia caught the Ottoman gunboat Haliç off Aqaba on 5 December and damaged her, forcing her crew to scuttle the vessel later.

On 16 December, she intercepted the steamer Kayseri leaving the Suez Canal, bound for Kunfuda with a load of coal for the Ottoman gunboats stationed there.

[11] In early 1912, the Italian Red Sea fleet searched for a group of seven Ottoman gunboats thought to be planning an attack on Eritrea, though they were in fact immobilized due to a lack of coal.

Puglia and Calabria carried out diversionary bombardments against Jebl Tahr, and Al Luḩayyah, while Piemonte and the destroyers Artigliere and Garibaldino searched for the gunboats.

On 7 January, they found the gunboats and quickly sank four in the Battle of Kunfuda Bay; the other three were forced to beach to avoid sinking as well.

[12][13] Puglia and the rest of the Italian ships returned to bombarding the Turkish ports in the Red Sea before declaring a blockade of the city of Al Hudaydah on 26 January.

Admiral Paolo Thaon di Revel, the Italian naval chief of staff, believed that Austro-Hungarian submarines could operate too effectively in the narrow waters of the Adriatic, which could also be easily seeded with minefields.

Instead, Revel decided to implement blockade at the relatively safer southern end of the Adriatic with the main fleet, while smaller vessels, such as the MAS boats, conducted raids on Austro-Hungarian ships and installations.